Thursday, September 03, 2009

Even if you don't have time to watch the video, please read my response to this nonsense below.

The video above quotes from Luke 10:18 in which Jesus is quoted as saying, “…I saw Satan fall like lightening from heaven.” In a nutshell, the argument of the video is that Jesus would have originally spoken these words in Aramaic which is related to Hebrew. In Hebrew the word for lightening is pronounced just like Barack (as in Barack O’Bama). Isaiah 14:12-19 refers to how Lucifer or Satan “ascends above the heights.” The Hebrew word for “heights” is pronounced Baw-maw. The Hebrew language uses a letter called “waw” to combine terms. This letter is sometimes pronounced “O.” So if a modern Rabbi were to read Jesus’ words about Satan falling like “lightening from Heaven” “he would say these words in Hebrew…“I saw Satan as Barack O' Bama.”

Let’s do a fact check on this argument.

First, it is true that Jesus may have spoken Aramaic in his everyday conversations.

Second, it is also true that Aramaic is related to Hebrew.

Third, it is also true that the Hebrew word for “lightening” is pronounced just like Barak, though the Aramaic word would probably have sounded more like “B’rak” (as in tack).

Fourth: Now comes the “slight-of-hand” so to speak. In Luke 10:18 Jesus says he saw Satan fall as lightening from heaven. The video doesn’t give you the Hebrew word for “Heaven.” The Hebrew word for heaven is pronounced like “Shamayim (Shamayah in Aramaic).

Obviously the words "Barack Shamayim" don’t work well with the slander this video is attempting to perpetrate, so instead, the video does a little bait-and-switch by referring the listener back to Isaiah 14:12-19 which refers to the fall of Lucifer (Satan).

The relevant parts of Isaiah 14:12-19 read, “How are you fallen from heaven, O Day Star, son of Dawn…You said in your heart, I will ascend to heaven above the stars of God…I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will make myself like the Most High. But you are brought down to Sheol.”

The video then points out that the Hebrew word for “heights” is pronounced “baw-maw.” Barack (lightening) Bama (heights).

Remember, however, that Jesus didn’t say he saw Satan fall from the “heights” (Bama). He says he saw Satan fall from the heavens (Shamayah, in Aramaic).

So why did the video choose to use the word for “heights” rather than the Hebrew word for “Heavens” which Jesus actually used? This is a very important question in light of the fact that the very passage the video cites (Isaiah 14:12-19) speaks of how Lucifer has “fallen from heaven” not from “the heights.”

The answer is because Barack Shamayah is not the name of our President and the video is attempting to twist the words of Jesus and Scripture to slander our President!

Fifth, the video then says that in Hebrew the letter “waw” is often transliterated as the letter U or O and is used as a conjunction to join concepts together, so in Hebrew poetry joining lightening and heaven would sound like Barak Obama.

The first problem with this is that the Hebrew letter “waw” is only pronounced as O or U when it is used as a vowel, NOT when it is used to join two terms together. When it is used to join two terms together it would be pronounced as a W (or in German pronunciation, a V).

The second problem is that when the “waw” is used to combine words together it usually means “and.” But Jesus didn’t say “I saw Satan fall like lightening and heaven.” He said, I saw Satan fall like lightening from heaven.

In Hebrew the word (actually a letter) for “from” is usually “mem.” In Hebrew “from Heaven” would be pronounced “mishamayim” NOT “Obama”! The creator of the video should have known this because the phrase “from Heaven” or “mishamayim” actually occurs in Isaiah 14:12, the very passage he cited in the video!

The video concludes by saying, “So back to Jesus’ prophecy in Luke chapter 10 verse 18, if spoken by a Jewish Rabbi today influenced by the poetry of Isaiah he would say these words in Hebrew, the word of Jesus in Luke chapter 10 verse 18 as “and I saw Satan as Barack O Bama.”

This is factually untrue. In Aramaic, the language Jesus most likely spoke when saying, “lightening from heaven” would probably have sounded something like “B’rak mishamayah, NOT Barack Obama!

Anyone who has read Recliner Commentaries very long knows that I am no fan of Barack Obama, but I find it despicable when the Bible is deliberately twisted to mislead people. The producer of this video is using the same kind of twisted casuistry gay activists often use when attempting to make it appear that the Bible supports homosexual sex. Deliberately twisting the Bible to fit someone's agenda is despicable when gay activists do it. It is despicable when professing Christians do it.

If the producer of this video has a shred of integrity, he will immediately pull this video and issue an apology to our President and to those he has misled.

I happen to believe that if he isn't the Anti-Christ he's the one who brings him. he is an evil man, and he also is of Musslim decent which the Bible also talks about. shaking hands with the Iraqi leaders and bowing to them!! you all can think what you want but this man will be the end of us all!

I have a degree in Hebrew language studies. Although I do not hold to the idea that the Isaiah verse refers to the AntiChrist, it IS indeed interesting to note that the Hebrew words for 'lightning' and 'heights' are transliterated (not meaning 'translated') into the same consonants of Barack Obama's name. Since the Hebrew language has no vowels, no one knows for sure of the pronunciation, but it is reasonable, given the context of the statement that the first name, 'barak' is indeed the word for lightning, not the word, 'baruk' which is 'blessing'. The second name, for 'heights' is the correct word used in Isaiah for 'heights' or 'heavens', according to the Strong's concordance. The verse is more likely a reference to 'the man of lawlessness' noted elsewhere in Scripture. Either way, I found it interesting that in a conversation with a rabbi friend, he referred to Obama as "The Jewish Satan".

here something u can,t deny the bible in revelation 12 says that the woman was given two wings of the great eagle what are the two wings of the great eagle they are the first and second amendment and also the symbol of the nra is the great eagle wake up people are u so stupid

John and Phyllis, I agree that he is evil. IMHO, only an evil person would try to preserve abortion by arguing that that babies born alive should be left to die unattended. Similarly, it takes an evil person to argue that Christians should be forced to violate their conscience on deeply held convictions.

But saying that Obama is evil is a long way from saying he is the Anti-Christ. Both Hitler and Stalin were evil but even they were not the Anti-Christ and Obama doesn't come anywhere near being as evil as Hitler or Stalin.

Capt. Ben, I would suggest that although the Gospel of Matthew was written some 600 years before Muhammad, Matthew 7:15-20 is warning of people just like Muhammad.

Brad, the word "lightening" does not appear anywhere in Isaiah, but even if it did, the fact that Obama's first name has the same consonants means absolutely nothing.

In Exodus one of the judgments was a judgment by hail--the Hebrew word for hail has the same consonants as your name (BRD). Does that tell us anything about you? Are you a judgment from God? (And if you really have a degree in Hebrew, why would you be citing Strongs Concordance?)

BlessedByTheBest: You're joking, right? The eagle was a symbol of Babylon, Rome, Nazi Germany and the U.S. In Isaiah the eagle is a symbol for swiftness and power.

Where do you get the idea that the eagle symbolizes the first and second amendments? After all, there were 10 original amendments--shouldn't there have been 10 wings in the vision in Revelation if it was about amendments?

Maybe the two wings are symbols of Republicans and Democrats; or maybe the 10 heads of the beast are the 10 amendments in the Bill of Rights I'm being facetious now.

I'm not trying to be mean. I'm trying to make the point that you can't just arbitrarily pick any two items and assume that Revelation (or any other biblical book) must have been referring to the two items you arbitrarily selected.

My problem is that shouldn't the only way to prove it is to re-translate the original text?

The "heaven" translation could be mistranslated in the first place, so backtracking it wouldn't work. Heaven definitely sounds more biblical that "heights" so I would imagine over the years heaven could have been made to fit the interpreter's interpretation.

I think deducing from the original text would be the only way to give this idea any credence as opposed to inducing it from translated texts that have been known to be misconstrued to fit other's interpretations over the years.

About Me

I am a library director, Bible professor, and ordained pastor with masters' degrees in library science and theological studies, and a doctor of philosophy in religion and society. This blog contains some of my articles, essays and posts.